Magic Bullets and Beyond: Stories Behind the Drugs that Changed the World Series, Book 1

This book tells fascinating stories behind three miracle drugs. The history of each of them is a saga containing many elements: exploration, curiosity, generosity, greed, misfortune, adventure, and conquest.

Like a time machine, this entertaining and educational drug history book will carry you to the past so that you can:

• Meet a successful charlatan who sold his secret recipe to King Louis XIV of France with 2,000 gold livre (a huge fortune in the 17th century).
• Travel with an unlucky adventurer and his faithful servant in mid-19th century in the rainforest’s dense jungles of the Andes mountains to find a cure for an ancient disease.
• See the mosquitoes with spotted wings which took millions of lives.
• Witness bright garments flooded the streets and everyone dressed like royalty from 1850s onwards, all of which was made possible because of an accidental discovery made by an 18-year-old teenager.
• Meet a scientific genius who used his magic bullet to successfully cure one of the most feared diseases in Europe for several centuries.
• Witness how one miracle drug was discovered in 1928 after an incredible chain of serendipitous events took place in succession.
• Meet three talented but quirky scientists who worked together and turned a mysterious mold into a wonder drug during World War II.
• Ultimately learn, of course, valuable medical knowledge from this book.

To keep readers engaged, I intentionally kept each story short and the book thin (only 84 pages). This book (“Magic Bullets and Beyond”) is book 1 of the series of stories behind the drugs that changed the world.

Book 2, “The Unforgettables” is available at Amazon.
Book 3, “Double-Edged Swords” (release date: TBD).

The author Guohua An is an Associate Professor in the College of Pharmacy, University of Iowa. Besides her beloved pharmaceutical research and teaching, she also loves art and writing.

Guohua An, MD, PhD, currently is an Associate Professor in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Iowa. In addition to pharmaceutical research and teaching, she loves art and writing.